The present invention relates generally to material handling, and specifically to an improved apparatus for collecting, sorting, transporting and dumping cropped sections of continuously cast bar.
Cropping of cast bar is necessary when portions of a continuous casting and rolling operation break down or must be shut down. At these times, molten metal between the furnace and the mold must continue through the casting process until repairs can be made or until the entire operation can be shut down. The hot cast bar is cropped, or cut into short sections immediately after casting and removed from its usual path for later remelting.
Prior art methods of handling cropped (cut) sections of cast bar are rather primitive. They are limited to handling sections of crop bar in loose piles or handling them in bins which are difficult to store, transport and unload.
The present invention is much more efficient because it is a durable multipurpose dumpable container for cropped bar.